While McClellan was fully occupied in
increasing the defenses around Washington and forming the great army which was designed to
crush its way through Virginia, the earliest special movements of the season, directed by
the war and navy departments, were along the extensive southern coast line. Fortress
Monroe was reinforced until it was impregnable. Fort Hatteras, in North Carolina, was
taken from the Confederates in August, and Port Royal, in South Carolina, was seized in
November. Another of the series of expeditions designed for the conquest of the coast
region had for its object the Gulf shore between New Orleans and Mobile, and succeeded in
securing a position on Ship island. The general blockade was strengthened by these
operations, and although not strictly effective its injurious effects began to be
seriously felt throughout the Confederacy.